Lot 126: ANTONIO CAMPI

ANTONIO CAMPI CREMONA 1524 - 1587 PORTRAIT OF A MAN, HALF-LENGTH, POINTING AT A HEBREW TABLET oil on canvas 39 1/2 by 32 1/8 in.; 100.4 by 81.6 cm.

Narodni Galerie, Prague (from labels on the reverse).

This portrait is striking not only because of its considerable pictorial quality, but also because of the exceptionally rare iconography it features. A young bearded man of about thirty is elegantly, if severely, dressed in a black doublet, over which he wears a high-collared black cloak. His costume is finished off by a matching beretto and, in an otherwise uncharacteristic dash of flash, a small diamond pinky ring. What is unusual about the painting is not the manner in which the sitter is outfitted per se, but the object on which he rests his hands. On a stone tablet, carved at top with elegant volute scrolls, is inscribed in gracefully rendered Hebrew letters (and which the artist has kindly inverted for ease of reading) the phrase Torat Moshe Emet or "the Torah (or Law) of Moses is the Truth". While Hebrew inscriptions in North Italian paintings are not without precedent, they are quite rare, and even more unusual in the context of a portrait. Rather than a simple phrase in Latin or even Greek which do make appearances in other cinquecento Italian portraits, this inscription in Hebrew is suggestive of a much more profound significance, something more than a classical motto or paradigm through which the sitter hoped to be perceived and memorialized.

The phrase Torat Moshe Emet itself, of course, can be seen as a simple statement of identity, that the sitter in the present portrait is Jewish, and that is that. This, however, is a much too simplistic approach to the picture. Certainly the inscription is an assertion of Jewish religious identity, and words that were used by Jewish congregations during prayer services. But such a direct and blatant declaration would seem to be unlikely in the sixteenth century, even in parts of Italy that treated their Jewish inhabitants in a more liberal fashion than was customary in other European countries. Examination of the composition of the picture suggests a deeper meaning. The young man rests his right hand near the last word of the inscription (not forgetting that Hebrew is read right to left), where his elongated, elegant fingers seem to point to the last two letters of the word Emet (Truth). These two characters-- Mem and Tav-- together form the word Met, or "Death". This visual word pun, highly sophisticated and predicated not only on the viewer's visual acuity but also on his understanding of Hebrew itself, clearly adds a whole new dimension to the portrait, and one that would have been open to a very restricted, extremely well-educated audience.

Several theories have been advanced as to the meaning of this painting, and how to place it in the context both of Italian painting and of the culture of the Italian Jewish community in the middle decades of the 16(th )Century. The handling of the paint and the direct, engaging naturalistic approach to the portrait places the picture in North Italy, and probably in Lombardy. The name of Antonio Campi, a painter and architect from the Cremonese family of artists has been suggested as a possibility. Also interesting is the careful way in which the inscription is rendered; the underdrawing marks laid in by the artist as a guide for the lettering are visible at left, and the style of the writing is consistent with calligraphy as practiced in Jewish communities in Italy in the 16th and 17th centuries, clearly suggesting that the artist had access to Hebrew scribes or at least good quality texts. The slab on which it is carved, in size and shape, also recalls a head stone, which serves to re-enforce the reference to mortality as "hidden" in the picture. One hypothesis is that the sitter is a Jewish man who had converted to Christianity, and thus the inscription can be viewed as a denunciation of his erstwhile faith. Whatever further study on this portrait may discover, it does appear to be an extremely rare example of Jewish culture in 16th Century Italy, as well as a beautiful work of art.

It has also been suggested that the present painting is a work by Vincenzo Campi.